My aunt. She’s not my real aunt, but she’s been a close friend of my mom’s for a long time.
“So it’s you and me, babe.” He smirks at me again.
I study my shoes. “Have you eaten?”
His tongue pushes out his right cheek. “I could eat. I’m hungry.” He winks at me.
I never quite understand what Jake’s game is. He talks in innuendo all the time, though he’s never done anything funny, and I think he does it because it makes my mom laugh. I’m so quiet, I’m sure he thinks I’m an easy target most of the time, and perhaps I am.
“I’ll make something,” I say. “Let me get changed.”
“I could watch you do that.” He guffaws, and I shrivel inside as I head to my room.
The girl’s code produces an axe in her hand, and she cuts off the ogre’s head.
I pause in the doorway and take in the small bed, the stained nylon carpet, and the books piled high on every surface. I want to move out and find a place of my own, but I’ve been putting it off because I don’t want to leave my mom. I also don’t have enough money for a deposit. I’ve always given anything I make to her; what with rent, insurance, medical costs … we’ve struggled forever. She works so hard and has sacrificed everything so we could survive.
I glance down the hall toward the living room. The TV’s too loud, as usual. Would my mom be okay here with Jake on her own? She’s never been the most organized person in the world; keeping a roof over our heads takes all her energy. She’s a kitchen assistant at a local school on minimum wage, and she fits a couple of cleaning jobs around it. Ever since I started picking up bits of work, my pay has helped. When I was twelve, my babysitting covered our electric bills. The money from my weekend job was gone before Monday. Now my salary is helping to pay off medical bills. She’s always juggled jobs and barely kept us above water. And I get it. I do. I have a little bit of cash stashed away—birthday tips, ten bucks here and there—but nowhere near what it would take to move out. My tech salary is making a big difference, though we’re now just under the income cap that qualifies us for this place and the rent’s gone right up. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before the housing people start pressuringmy mom to leave.Another reason for me to go.I take a deep breath. I wish I wasn’t the one who had to start the conversation about money and moving out.
I never thought I’d earn enough to leave home. School was a real struggle. I had undiagnosed dyslexia, and everything was difficult. I didn’t pass any exams; they were long and complicated, and I took twice as much time as everyone else; I don’t think I ever finished one. But, by a total fluke, my counselor was also the computer teacher, and he sent me some links to online courses. So I taught myself to program, and for the first time in my life, I got decent grades on the work I submitted. There were so many built-in tools to help. I couldn’t quite believe it, but I kept taking the courses and watching the videos, whatever free stuff I could find, and I accumulated more and more certificates. I’ve been doing it for years. It’s made me feel a little better about being slow and struggling to write.
I was dizzy when I received an email from Williams Security offering me an interview. They gave me a coding test, and I was sure I’d flunked it, but they seemed happy. The problem is that I think they only contacted me because I lied about college on my online application. I didn’t really mean to lie … Well … in a fit of frustration, I said I had a degree because I’d applied for so many other software jobs and gotten nowhere. I meant to go back and take it out, but then I had to submit the application at the last minute in a rush, because my mom wasn’t well and the cleaning company I was working for was laying people off. I only realized I’d left it in when Des mentioned my college during the interview. And it’s on me that I didn’t come clean then. I should have, but I had such a nice chat with him, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I thought they’d check my degree and that would be the end of it, but that didn’t happen.
God, it was the best day of my life when Des called to offer me the position. A job writing software for a tech startup! Every time I step through the door of the offices on Water Street, my heart soars. Maybe one day I’ll go and study properly, like smart people do. And I’ll tell Williams Security, I will. Just not yet. Six months is the deadline I’ve set for coming clean.
When I raise my head, Jake is standing in the doorway of my room, eyes scanning down my body.
“Just as good-looking as your mom.” He leers at me. “When she was younger.”
Ugh. My skin crawls. He’s in an odd mood tonight, like he’s jonesing about something. Is this why he came to the office looking for me? He’s smoked weed for a long time, but I’ve been wondering whether he sometimes takes other drugs; his moods have been swinging around a lot lately.
His eyes drag over me. No way am I changing my clothes now. I step past him and down the scuffed hallway into the kitchen with its battered old brown cupboards and linoleum floor. I pull a couple of frozen meals out of the freezer.
“These okay?”
He nods as he studies me, and I turn the oven on, then peel the plastic off the trays and bend down to slide them inside. I sense rather than feel him right behind me, and then something touches my bottom. My eyes go wide as I jerk upright.
Shit.
Shit.
He’snevertouched me.
I swing around. “What the fuck are you doing?”
Up close I can see that his eyes are unfocused. He presses a finger to my lips, and I twist my head away.
“Stop fucking touching me. That is not okay!”
“Ah, don’t be like that. We’re buddies, you and I, aren’t we? We’re on our own tonight; we could have some fun.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Sweat breaks out over my skin.Christ.This is … I’m not safe here. Not safe at all. I’m not often on my own with him, and I’ve always just ignored all his innuendos and the way his eyes would wander over me, because what choice did I have, really? I didn’t make enough money, have any credit, or have any way out of here. A lot of the guys around here treat women like Jake does.
“You’ve become all high and mighty since you started at that tech place,” he says, frowning.
My heart is like thundering hooves. “Don’t be silly; I’m busy, that’s all.There’s a lot of pressure.” Distract him, Sadie! “Isn’t the game on tonight?” I say, as I step to one side and pull out the cutlery drawer.
His weaselly eyes scan over me, and my neck prickles. He’s a big guy. He grunts, gaze drifting toward the living room, and I wave at the television. “Go and find the football, and let me finish up in here. Who’s playing tonight?”
